Days Like This
by MeredithBrody
Summary: Pride is back in the bar, and a few minor things need to be discussed. ((Ep tag for 2x14 -Prody))


**So, I'm back. I promise I'll update "All Downhill From Here" this week. I just suck. Basically. ANYWAY. This is an ep tag for 2x14... it has an established but secret Prody, and a mild hint of LaSalle/Percy that could be glossed over. Anyway. Please R &R.  
** **-Shin**

* * *

As the party got going again, and his agents, for the most part separated out to go celebrating. Soon he was left alone with the one person he was glad to be sat alone with. Brody had been hovering, and he knew that was because she wanted to check up on him as well. She was just marginally better at hiding it than some of the others. Which amused him a little, because she was the one with the most reason to be concerned. So as soon as they were alone he spoke quietly. "Was it my imagination, or did Sebastian call me dad?"

"Oh no, that happened. I would have recorded it but too far away." Brody smiled, and she was clearly teasing him. Not that he really minded, because he could think of a way to tease her right back. He wasn't going to tip that hand right now though, instead he was going to pout for a minute, then he'd tease her about it.

"Laugh it up, go on." Was his response instead, and she just smirked at him a little. That told him even more that she was really enjoying the fact that someone had just called him 'dad' and that he was confused about that. He just hoped that Sebastian wasn't gonna do anything else to compound that.

"Oh I will." She grinned even more, and he had to fight the urge to kiss the smirk off her face. That was something he was having to suppress more and more now, and it was a problem because they weren't a public couple, and they weren't ready to be either. It was still too new, and too unpredictable for that.

"You realise that makes you momma." He commented, and leant forward to whisper in her ear. He really wanted to take the opportunity to kiss her as he did. Instead he focused on the fact that she was blushing really hard, and that was really the desired effect of his statement. Not to embarrass her, but to remind her that he could tease her too.

"Shut up." She ended up bursting out laughing, and he knew that it was going to have to be pointed out to her that because of their relationship it was true. He thought it was hilarious that this was a thing at all, and he would definitely be asking Sebastian why he was called 'dad' one day. Not today though.

"It's true. If I'm dad, you're momma." He pushed her, and Brody just shook her head. He was still fascinated by the way her longer hair moved sometimes, even though it had been a long few months since she'd grown it all out. It was cute, and he did enjoy playing with it when she gave him the chance.

"Maybe when we're out, but not right now I'm not." Damn, she had him there. She couldn't be momma if they weren't a little more open with their relationship. The one thing they were unprepared for. Which Brody knew as well as he did, and that meant she'd won this round. Not that he was going to give it to her easily. "Right now I'm just your slightly flirty coworker."

"Meredith." He growled quietly, still standing close enough that he didn't have to speak loudly enough for anyone to overhear them. The bar was loud with people celebrating, and the people who would care about them were all elsewhere, enjoying the party and everything else that was on offer.

"That's not gonna stop me from teasing you." She replied, shaking her head a little as she pulled back. He knew that was probably a sign he should stop trying to tease her, but he just couldn't. It was too much fun.

"Maybe I didn't want it to." He smiled again, hoping that it didn't show on his face how much that had hurt where the bruise was forming. That was going to be nasty come the morning.

"Poor baby, you look pretty sore." Brody said, stepping back a little and looking at his face. He was sore, that was for sure, but he'd live with it just like he always did. He'd made it back, even if he had freaked everyone out in the process.

"I am, I'll get over it though." He smiled, not wanting to give her something else to worry about after the last couple of hours. he could wait until they were alone, or until the morning. It probably wasn't serious anyway.

"Look at you two, all secret like. You talking about a case?" Came the not-so-silent interruption created by LaSalle, he'd clearly come over for a reason, a reason that Pride was sure they'd find out in a minute or two.

"Yeah, the Morlan's." Pride answered, looking at Brody as he did. the last thing they needed was to give LaSalle something to gossip about. Generally he preferred to be the one causing the gossip, and the way he was with Percy was certainly going to keep fanning those flames as long as he kept his personal life private.

"That's an old case, talk about it tomorrow." He waved a hand and started pulling Brody away slowly, but it was obvious that he wasn't going to leave her stood there. At his next statement, Pride decided that it wasn't something that needed to be said. "Brody come on, Percy and I need you to settle a bet."

"One that Country Mouse is gonna lose." Percy replied, and in the crowd he hadn't even spotted the diminutive agent stood the other side of LaSalle. That was probably part of Percy's effectiveness.

"Sorry." He looked up and saw mouthed to him as Brody was pulled away, and he couldn't help but smile that she'd clearly been enjoying their teasing conversation as much as he had been.

"Go." He mouthed back and waved a hand, saying she should allow the other two agents to take her without feeling guilty. He was a little guilty for having kept Brody to himself for so long as they'd teased, but he hadn't been able to help it.

Loretta broke his thoughts only a second later, coming up to the side of him and keeping her voice low. Clearly she now had something she wanted to say, and judging from the look of her it had been something she hadn't wanted to say in front of Brody. "You two look cosy."

"How do you always know?" He asked with a smile and shook his head. Loretta always knew when the NCIS agents had something to hide, and when they had something they didn't want made public just yet.

"I thought I saw something at Christmas, and again when Agent Bishop was visiting." At least nobody had suspected for almost 6 weeks. That's longer than he'd expected for this to go without someone realising something. Loretta clearly had a moment where she'd figured it out fully thought, and that was interesting. "But really, the clue was after the whole 'online dating profile' issue."

"You were against that too!" He exclaimed, unable to believe that that was the situation that had tipped anyone off to his relationship with Brody. Especially someone else who had thought it was a bad idea.

"Not in quite the same way as agent Brody. I could see it was personal for her." Of course Loretta had picked up on that. "She loves you, Dwayne. I have the notion you feel the same." With the certainty in her statement, all he could do was nod. The truth was he did love Brody, and he'd hoped she felt the same.

"The other's know?" If anyone had figured anything out, they would talk to Loretta first to get some kind of confirmation. Everyone knew that she would be the first person who knew these things, in an situation. Asking her would give him an idea how long they had before they'd have to take it public.

"Patton suspects, the others are clueless." That was some relief. Like Loretta, Patton could be trusted to keep things private when needed. Patton had enough secrets that keeping one more wouldn't be an issue.

"Get her to take you home soon, you should sleep, and Brody lives closest to the office." That seemed way too simple, and besides, Brody wasn't the only one who lived near the NCIS office, she lived next door to Loretta, and that would be a similar distance.

"You and her live next door to each other." It seemed the best argument to use, as he knew that LaSalle and Percy would try and convince Brody to stay on a night out, even though he knew Brody was trying to cut back on her drinking.

"I don't have a reason to go to the office though. I just heard you mention a case to Christopher." Loretta had some plan. Pride had seen that look on her face often enough over the years of their friendship. She wore that same lopsided grin whenever she had a plan for something.

"I did." He nodded after a few seconds and Loretta just looked at him for a moment, then shook her head when he just carried on looking at her vaguely confused. It was just not connecting in his mind, though he was going to claim it was that he has been drugged only a couple of hours ago.

"Brody is working on it too?" He nodded, interested to see where Loretta was going to take this. It was an interesting avenue though, and it would give them a reason to leave. "That's why she's taking you, to pick up a file."

"You're a bad influence, Loretta." He laughed a little and tapped his glass to hers even while shaking his head. It made him happy, at least, that she wasn't telling him that this was a bad idea.

"Yet a good friend." She smiled as if reading his mind, and he reminded himself that one day he would need to test if Loretta could actually now read minds. She just seemed to get it right too often.

"When she's done with them, I don't want to know what they were needing Brody's opinion on." In fact, he doubted anyone wanted to know what had been LaSalle and Percy bet, including Brody, unfortunately she was the one who drew the short straw, as he was the boss.

"Probably not." Loretta agreed, and that made him even more concerned. What could possibly worry a medical examiner. Maybe that was best not thought about. "Here she comes."

"Thanks." He said as she stepped away again, clearly going back to pretending to pay attention to whatever Patton and Sebastian were arguing about.

Brody's slightly flushed face then stopped in front of him and he almost asked why, but she got in first and shook her head, signalling that he likely didn't want or need to know. "Remind me next time those two ask me to settle a bet to say no."

"I can do that." He agreed and laughed at the look of disgust on her face, and she looked momentarily like she wanted to lick the sleeves of her shirt. He decided that it would probably be best he got her out of there if only for that reason. "Do you mind taking me home?"

"Sure, I haven't had time to drink but Percy and LaSalle are already on that." Brody nodded and motioned back into the bar somewhere as the two of them started out, they both smiled as they passed, and Brody spoke when they saw Loretta on the way to the door. "See ya Loretta."

"You too Merri, Dwayne." Loretta replied with a small smirk, one that Pride hoped nobody else caught. They just carried on out the door and onto the street where there was a little more quiet, not much, but enough that they could speak normally.

"Does she know?" Brody asked, looking back over her shoulder at the door, and clearly she had caught Loretta's face. That didn't necessarily bode well for the rest, but he trusted that nothing would be said. Though now he had to convince Brody that he hadn't told.

"Oh yeah, she knows." He nodded and smiled, deciding that now they were out, and almost everyone who knew them was still back in the bar, he'd wrap his arm around her and hold her in to his side.

"You told her?" She asked as they carried on walking, reciprocating his gesture with her arm as she spoke. So, even if she was a little mad at him, she wasn't that mad. If she was she would have shrugged him off, not held him back.

"Not in so many words. She figured it out, I confirmed." He smiled a little, and then he had to press that this wasn't going to stay secret very much longer. "It's going to start coming out soon anyway. It's been three months, Agent Brody." He still remembered the night well, and he was sure she did too.

"Since you hit on me after my mother left, I know." She laughed a little, and he just shook his head. He hadn't meant to hit on her. He'd just been trying to be a good friend.

"I didn't hit on you." He argued, a smile on his face as they squeezed through the people walking up and down Royal. It was the fastest way back, but that didn't mean it was easy to get through on Mardi Gras. Nowhere was.

"You handed me alcohol and said 'I can cook or we can go out but you're staying with me tonight'. That was you hitting on me." She clearly wasn't going to give up on telling him that he was hitting on her, and he was going to keep arguing that he wasn't.

"I meant that you shouldn't be alone, what happened was not intentional." He'd enjoyed that though, and though they'd only eaten and spoken, they'd shared a bed… that had been where it all started, and the next morning had been a little bit more interesting in terms of what had been planned. "What happened the following morning however."

"Oh that was definitely intentional. And requiring of plan B." She grinned yet still blushed that subtle pink that happened whenever he brought up that morning. It was cute, and he enjoyed seeing it, especially when coupled with the kind of smile she was giving him right at that moment.

"It was a good morning." He nodded, giving her a gentle squeeze as he did. That was probably going to be burned into his memory for a long time. He wasn't exactly the most usual person in terms of his personal history, he didn't have many first nights to remember.

"The drugs have made you crazy, let's get you to bed." Brody laughed, clearly not realising exactly how special it was for him, and he wasn't going to tell her right now. It wasn't the time. Instead he just leant in as they walked and whispered.

"As long as you're in it with me."

"I think I can agree to that." She agreed after only a second and turned to kiss him softly. He could deal with every danger this job threw at them, as long as he knew he'd always have people to share it with. He was happy that he had the team that he had, but right now he was even happier that Brody had decided to stay in New Orleans with them, and that he could say he had her in his life. Hopefully for good.


End file.
